LUCA’s Carlos Turcios
An anti-transgender event scheduled to be held Saturday, April 20, at Fort Worth’ Victory Forest Community Center has been cancelled over concerns that it would violate the city’s nondiscrimination policy, according to the Fort Worth Report.
But Carlos Turcious, director of Texas Latinos United for Conservative Action told FWR cancellation was “unacceptable and inappropriate … . That is a violation of the First Amendment. The city of Fort Worth … cannot dictate what opinions are allowed.
The event was titled “The Danger of Transgenderism.”
Lynette Sharp, a member of the group No Hate in Texas which was instrumental in forcing hate-based Stedfast Baptist Church to move out of Watauga and Hurst, was one of the first to raise concerns over LUCA holding its anti-trans event at a city facility. She told FWR when she first heard about the LUCA event, she called the community center to ask about booking space for an event herself. After the center staff gave her booking information, she told them the event would be focused on why Christians shouldn’t exist anymore.
When she asked if that would be ok, and they told her such an event would violate policy, Sharp asked why, then, LUCA’s anti-trans event was being allowed. “She said they were still working on it.”
Fort Worth city spokesperson Reyne Telles told FWR in a written statement that the city’s community centers are “dedicated to upholding a welcoming environment free from discrimination. She also said that although paid the required security deposit in March, they never returned a signed reservation form, which includes a link to the procedures manual, which — as Sharp pointed out — specifies that “groups that practice or profess discrimination on the basis of sex and other identity markers aren’t allowed to use the community center for events.
Telles told FWR that after further investigation, city staff determined the event violated the nondiscrimination clause outlined in the manual.
— Tammye Nash